CPI(M) to organise protests against Land Acquisition Act

Hyderabad: Alleging that the ordinance promulgated by NDA government amending the Land Acquisition Act is "utterly anti-farmer and anti-poor", the Communist Party of India (Marxist) called for a broad-based and united struggle of all political forces against it here on Monday.

"CPI(M) units all over India have already started a struggle campaign against this black ordinance. The Central Committee calls for a broad-based united struggle of all political forces and mass organisations opposed to this onslaught on farmers' rights," a resolution adopted by the CPI(M)'s Central Committee at its ongoing meeting here said.

The CPI(M) Central Committee began its three-day session here with General Secretary Prakash Karat placing the 'Draft Review Report on the Political Tactical Line' in the morning, which is being discussed.

Condemning the "black ordinance", the CPI(M) called for widest mobilisation of farmers and the rural poor to force its reversal.

"The Modi government has shown its contempt for Parliament and democratic norms by adopting the ordinance route in its eagerness to satiate demands of corporates and foreign investors. The ordinance is both authoritarian in its method as well as utterly anti-farmer and anti-rural poor in its substance," the CPI(M) resolution said.

The ordinance has brought in a new Chapter 3A into the Principal Act of 2013, which expands the definition of public purposes by including five new sectors, while another amendment removes the necessity to get consent from farmers whose land is being acquired to set up private hospitals as well as private educational institutions, the resolution said.

"It does not differentiate between government and public sector projects and those in the private sector. Thus, in effect, it is even worse than the 1894 Act," the resolution said.